Wellspan Health System reflects on the present and future of electronic health records

NEWSWIRE:  November 7, 2016

DATELINE: York, PA

By 2012, the Affordable Care Act required electronic health records to be adopted by U.S. physicians.  Memorial Hospital, WellSpan York Hospital and Hanover Hospital – leading helathcare providers in the York, Pennsylvania area – all use some sort of electronic health record.

Digital records replace traditional paper charts, allowing doctors to track a patient’s medical history and prescribe medication from computers in hopes of making care more efficient.  Doctors have more time to spend with patients by decreasing the amount of time spent on administrative tasks and reducing medical errors.

Some issues have come up because doctors are spending too much time on the computers trying to figure out how to use everything.  To try and solve this issue physicians are now receiving training on integrating electronic Health records into their care.  Physicians are encouraged to set up their monitors to be patient facing and doctors are able to use voice recognition software to dictate their summaries, reading them back to patients to ensure they’re correct.  Patients should feel like they’re included in the conversation.  

WellSpan Health hopes to have its new, integrated system in place across all locations in Lancaster, Lebanon, york and Adams counties by fall 2017.

Read the full article here.